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ça

French, pronoun

ça is spelled Ç-A (2 letters) and appears 3,388 times per million words in written French, the 40th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Ça is a French neuter pronoun meaning “that (distal demonstrative pronoun)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). On this page, CA is a different word: “initialism of conseil d'administration”. Without its cedilla, ca is a different word: “abbreviation of circa”. With a cedilla, çà is a different word: “so, well, then (with exhortative or intensive effect)”. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Cette chose, cette situation”.

What does ça mean in English?

pronoun

  1. 1

    informalneuterthat (distal demonstrative pronoun)

    J'aimerais ça.

  2. 2

    informalneuterthis (proximal demonstrative pronoun)

    Je veux ça.

  3. 3

    informalneuterit (alternative form of ce as a subject of être in tenses other than the present and imperfect indicative)

    Ça serait mieux que ça soit toi qui lui dises.

  4. 4

    informalneuterit, that, they, them (reduplicated pronoun referring to an indefinite or generic noun phrase)

    Un peu de vin ça ferait pas de mal.

  5. 5

    neuterit (dummy pronoun)

    Ça va.

  6. 6

    neuterused to indicate actions happening generally without specifying an agent, like on but with a greater suggestion of mass, generalized, unattributable, or confused action; people

    Partout ça criait, ça hurlait, ça se battait.

  7. 7

    neutercreates isolated emphatic forms of the interrogatives qui, où, quand, comment and pourquoi

    Qui ça, où ça?

  8. 8

    neuterhe, she, it (third-person singular subject pronoun)

noun

  1. 1

    masculineid

noun

as CA
  1. 1

    masculineinitialism of conseil d'administration

  2. 2

    masculineinitialism of chiffre d'affaires

  3. 3

    masculineinitialism of courant alternatif (“AC or alternating current”)

  4. 4

    Canadamasculineinitialism of comptable agréé (“chartered accountant”): CA

preposition

as ca
  1. 1

    abbreviation of circa

adverb

as çà
  1. 1

    archaichither

interjection

as çà
  1. 1

    so, well, then (with exhortative or intensive effect)

  2. 2

    archaicla! (expressing strong emotion of anger, surprise etc.)

Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How French dictionaries define it

pronoun: 1. Cette chose, cette situation. 2. Démonstratif au sens indéterminé.

noun: 1. Inconscient, représentant la partie pulsionnelle de la psyché humaine.

pronoun: 1. Sujet explétif d’un verbe sans actant.

adverb: 1. Adverbe de lieu similaire à ici ou à là, mais qui induit une notion d’éparpillement ainsi que de hasard.

interjection: 1. Utilisé pour appuyer une phrase, pour signifier une surprise, une exclamation, une émotion.

preposition: 1. Circa.

adjective: 1. Coquelucheux acellulaire.

noun: 1. Chiffre d’affaires. 2. Comptable agréé. 3. Conseil d’administration. 4. Corps d’armée.

preposition: 1. Abréviation de circa.

prefix: 1. pseudo-préfixe entrant dans la composition de nombreux mots français avec valeur de composition tautologique dans la langue populaire.

The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.

Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.

Forms of ça

  • CAs plural
  • cha-

Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

English words that translate to ça

Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.

How common is ça in French?

ça appears 3,388 times per million words in written French.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

What to look up after ça